Retired colonel, 83, was shot dead on his doorstep

Lieutenant Colonel Robert “Riley” Workman was shot in the chestEnterprise News

A retired Army officer was shot in the stomach with a sawn-off shotgun when he answered the door of his cottage, a court heard yesterday.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert “Riley” Workman, 83, was killed on his doorstep in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire, on January 7, 2004. The identity of his killer was a mystery. Subsequently, Christopher Docherty-Puncheon, a pest controller, was charged with his murder, Richard Latham, QC, for the prosecution, told a jury at St Albans Crown Court.

The court was told that Docherty-Puncheon, 33, from nearby Stocking Pelham, was serving a life sentence for the murder of another man, Fred Moss, in the same year. Mr Latham said that this showed Docherty-Puncheon was capable of “cold-blooded killing”. He described the murder of Colonel Workman as…